Remarks by the President While on Tour of Trail at Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

12:10 P.M. MDT

THE PRESIDENT: One of the
things it's important for people to understand, that through good
management of our forests we can prevent forest fires. I
appreciate Secretary Norton's work on this. I want to thank
you all for helping show America that we can do a better job of
maintaining our natural resources.

We can thin these out and make them less
prone to fire, and that's what we're going to see happen right
now. I appreciate you giving me a chance to come by.

PARK SERVICE PERSON: And we're
very proud of your support for the national parks.

THE PRESIDENT: I'm a big
supporter. We've got $5 billion -- nearly $5 billion in the
budget for five years, to make sure these parks are accessible to all
Americans. Fran is in charge of the national park
system. She is very smart and
capable. (Laughter.)

MS. MAINELLA: Thank you, Mr.
President.

THE PRESIDENT: Otherwise, you
wouldn't have been named. (Laughter.)

MS. MAINELLA: Thank you; I knew
that. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: But we're
excited to be here. This is a beautiful part of the
world. I'm not only going to talk about how to make sure we
maintain our parks in a smart, capable way, like you're doing, but I'm
also going to talk about the need to teach our children good lessons of
character.

And one way -- and there's no better place
to do this. I want to thank the Y for inviting me here to
herald a program. All kinds of communities have character
around the country, and this is a unique community of character.

When I was a kid growing up, a lot of my
buddies used to come up to Estes Park from Houston, Texas. I
guess you've had families coming since 1909.

PARK SERVICE
PERSON: Yes. And Texas still has a large
membership here with us, we get a lot of Texans. We love
them.

THE PRESIDENT: That's good.

PARK SERVICE PERSON: In fact,
after Colorado, Texas --

THE PRESIDENT: I've never been
here. To Estes Park? Never have, no. I can see
why a lot of people come, though, it's beautiful.

Q We can come more
often, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: See, he's been
in Crawford, Texas. (Laughter.) I'm not saying
he's the biggest griper about the choice of where I go to work in the
summer. He'll like it -- get used to
it. (Laughter.)

MS. MAINELLA: Do you know that
you're the first President in almost 70 years to be here at Rocky
Mountain National Park.

Q I did not know
that, Fran, thank you.

MS. MAINELLA: And we really
appreciate that. And it's really a statement of your
commitment to our national park system.

THE PRESIDENT: I am a big
believer in the park system. We've got a lot of maintenance
backlog and we've got to take care of it. I know Fran has
been doing -- Gale, we're going to make a strong commitment to our
parks. It's a really important part of the American scene.

MS. MAINELLA: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: And, again, I
want to emphasize the fact that through good forest management we can
do a better job of containing fire. And I know there are
some in our country that want to just, you know, let the forests fall
apart. We're not going to let that happen in this
administration. We're going to maintain them and we're going
to make sure that if there is a fire, it does as little damage as
possible.

You're going to see a part of the strategy
right here. Gale was with the Western Governors this past
week and we've come up with a very good strategy. It
enforces -- reinforces our commitment to working with the states and
the local jurisdictions to make sure we've got sound, smart
environmental policy. Not all the wisdom in the world is in
Washington, D.C. (Laughter.) Some in Washington
think that; but not this administration.

We trust the local folks and our federal
government is going to pledge to stand side by side with local
folks. This is a collaborative effort here we're going to
see between the private sector and the public park system to maintain
these forests in a good, sensible way.